1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable data storage device and, in particular, to a high impact resistant data storage device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional hard disk drives, such as those used with personal computers and other types of processors, suffer from an inherent fragility and Electrostatic Discharge sensitivity. Consequently, hard disk drives are conventionally fixed within the computer housing, which makes it difficult to access the disk drives, transfer large data files, or to update and replace the disk drives in case of a failure. Because hard disk drives are fixed units within a computer, and the operating systems (OS) is resident on the hard disk drives, the OS and application software are also non-transferable elements of computer systems. Thus, the fragility of conventional hard disk drives influence today's computer architecture, making it non-flexible, non-interchangeable, and expensive.
In nearly all current designs for disk drives, shock resistance is a major design consideration. Despite such efforts, shocks imparted to a drive as the result of being dropped, hit, jiggled, or by other movement are known to cause serious damage to the drive. Many design efforts have been attempted to reduce problems with shock, and substantial strides have been made compared to the extremely fragile designs of a few years ago. Nevertheless, disk drives are still generally fragile.
Several approaches have been attempted to make a portable data storage device. One approach is a removable media drive, such as that produced by Iomega and SyQuest. These systems attempted to solve shock problems in a portable environment by simply arranging for the removal of the media during power-off. In these designs, a fixed head stack remains in a housing, while the media cartridge is removed. While this configuration allows for shock resistance, the lack of a sealed environment has created serious limitations.
Another approach to a portable data storage device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,360. In this approach, a disk drive is basically encased in a padding material and mounted within a protective housing. While this approach provides a large shock resistance, other problems result, such as vibration, heat dissipation, large physical dimensions and EMI (electromagnetic Interference) shielding.
Thus, what is needed is an improved data storage device that is impact and vibration resistant, while being ergonomically sized and portable.